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Calder mobile could be 3rd artwork on sale

Alexander Calder's prominent "Black Crescent" mobile has been removed from the Delaware Art Museum's East Court and its collections database, making it potentially the third work the museum will sell by October.

Alexander Calder's prominent "Black Crescent" mobile has been removed from the Delaware Art Museum's East Court and its collections database, making it potentially the third work the museum will sell by October.

Museum CEO Mike Miller would not confirm whether the mobile by the late sculptor, purchased by the museum in 1961, will be sold. The Wilmington museum is trying to raise $30 million to repay construction debt from a 2005 facilities expansion and replenish its endowment.

Black Crescent "is not hanging," Miller said. "I can't say whether it's gone or not." The piece was removed after the museum announced in March that it would sell as many as four works from its 12,500-piece collection to prevent shuttering the century-old institution.

On June 17, Christie's in London will auction off the first Delaware museum work, William Holman Hunt's "Isabella and the Pot of Basil," a cornerstone of the museum's acclaimed pre-Raphaelite collection. It is estimated to sell for as much as $13.4 million. Christie's highlighted it on the cover of its catalog for the Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite and British Impressionist Art sale.

Museum officials have declined to release the names of the other works, explaining that it could hurt the market for private sales. They have promised not to sell any works acquired through gift or bequest.

As of Monday, Black Crescent was still listed on one museum page online, promoting the East Court for space rentals.

"The contemporary space is accented by the works Rome II and Alexander Calder's Black Crescent," the site read.

The museum also holds Calder's 1972 lithograph, "Untitled," according to its database.

Along with the Calder mobile, another iconic piece has disappeared from the museum walls and database since the announcement. Winslow Homer's "Milking Time," purchased by the museum in 1967, was removed within the last three months and will likely be marketed to private buyers first, according to art experts. The board still has not selected a fourth work to be sold. It may not be necessary, Miller said, if the other works bring in sufficient revenue.

The value of Calder's works has skyrocketed in recent years. Born in Lawnton, Pennyslvania, he is credited for inventing mobile sculptures with suspended elements that move with power or wind. His grandfather, sculptor Alexander Milne Calder, created the statue of William Penn atop Philadelphia City Hall.

Last month, Calder's "Poisson Volant [Flying Fish]" sculpture from 1957 sold for $26 million at Christie's, more than double its high estimate of $12 million. The black metal mobile set a world auction record for the artist.

Other Calder pieces have sold for significantly less, such as the 1975 "Blue Flower, Red Flower" for $2.8 million and the 1961 "Sumac" for $12 million.

The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York boasts the largest Calder collection of any museum. Whitney Museum officials did not respond to a request for comment Monday. The Calder Foundation, a nonprofit family foundation in New York that has preserved more than 600 sculptures and thousands of other objects by the artist, did not return calls.

Community response has been mixed at a series of meetings about the art sale hosted by the Delaware museum. Several members praised museum trustees for saving the institution from financial ruin, while the arts community has criticized the board for lax management.

Trustees have repeatedly stated that they voted to sell the art only after every viable alternative was exhausted.

In a weekend editorial published in The News Journal, University of Delaware economics professor Eleanor Craig recommended that the museum borrow $10 million and enact severe budget cuts, such as closing a wing, to promote residential development as a revenue-generator on the Kentmere Parkway site.

"Selling the paintings is unnecessary and very harmful to the essence of the museum," she said.

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The now empty space in the East Court where an Alexander Calder mobile “Black Crescent” hung (beyond rail), seen Sunday, June 8, 2014.
(Photo:
William Bretzger/The News Journal
)

Contact Margie Fishman at (302) 324-2882 or at mfishman@delawareonline.com.